President of the Slovak Republic Ivan Gašparovič and his wife paid an official visit to the Czech Republic on 10 -11 December 2012.

During the talks with his Czech counterpart Václav Klaus, the Slovak President said that the twenty years of independence of our two countries have proven the former Czechoslovakia had not split up because we had not understood each other but because we had wished to run our respective economies and affairs of our countries autonomously. “What happened twenty years ago has benefited both of our countries. There is no doubt about it,” Václav Klaus pointed out. He added that the Slovaks have gained more than the Czechs over the twenty years since the federation split up. According to the Slovak President, “our relations have never been better, and what makes me even gladder, the majority of our citizens think so as well.”

The two presidents agreed that political and economic relations between Slovakia and the Czech Republic were on an absolutely friendly level. “I am glad that our personal contacts with Mr President have also contributed to the excellent quality of relations between our countries,” President Gašparovič told journalists after the talks.

The presidents also discussed European Union agenda at their meeting in the Prague Castle. Ivan Gašparovič appreciated our EU membership which, in his opinion, has had a positive impact on Slovakia’s economic growth. On the other, the breakdown of our agricultural sector is a big disappointment, according to the President. “Our top priority for the next period is to restore Slovakia’s agricultural and farming sectors,” Gašparovič told the Czech President.

President Klaus appreciated Slovakia’s economic success. "The Slovak economy is not in crisis. You have a 2.6-percent growth in GDP, that’s not crisis,” the Czech President pointed out at a news conference.

The Slovak President recalled in this respect difficult tasks Slovakia had gone through since the split-up up to its accession to NATO and the European Union, including the Schengen area and eurozone. The Slovak head of state added he hoped that Václav Klaus would also make a similar farewell visit to Bratislava at the beginning of the next year, prior to the end of his office term.

Ivan Gašparovič also met with President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic Milan Štěch. He appreciated a close cooperation between the two national parliaments as beneficial. “I really appreciate joint efforts of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic and the National Council of the Slovak Republic to organise a ‘Czechs and Slovaks - 20 Years of Cooperation of Sovereign Countries and Their Presence in the EU and NATO' conference on 8 January 2013 in Prague,” Ivan Gašparovič said.

In a discussion with Chairwoman of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic Miroslava Němcová, President Gašparovič once again confirmed the excellent quality of bilateral relations between the two countries. Ivan Gašparovič firmly believes that “our close links, language and cultural proximity prove there is no other country in the world with which we have such intensive relations." According to President Gašparovič, Slovakia wishes to cooperate with the Czech Republic in areas of our mutual strategic concern, including nuclear energy, defence and transport.